The Bagg Group Blog

Calling on long-ago contacts and others to learn of any possible job opportunities is nobody’s idea of fun.  But that is a fact that works in your favour.

People respect you for making the call because they know it isn’t easy to do. It takes initiative and some courage, and everyone appreciates that.

As we said in the last blog, looking for a job is like having your own company.  What is your product?  Your services as an employee  – whether you are looking for full-time employment, contract opportunities, or temporary work. 

Most companies have to do some degree of cold calling. Your company is likely no exception.  With that in mind, The Bagg Group offers seven tips for when the time comes to pick up the phone and promote yourself.

Remember, this is a call between equals.  You have something valuable to offer – your skills.  If you feel awkward about calling, the person on the other end will pick up on your embarrassment.  And your discomfort will make them uncomfortable.  At that point, they will want to end the call as quickly as possible to put you both out of misery.

Be professional, confident and friendly, and the person on the other end will respond in kind.  The more at ease you are, the more at ease the recipient of the call will be.  The end result will be a more productive, useful exchange of information. 

Set the stage:  Ask the person if you’re catching them at a good time.  Most will respond that they are busy (no one can afford a lengthy chat at work), but will ask the purpose of your call.  You may want to say that you have a “quick” question to reassure them that you will be respectful of their time.  People get impatient and annoyed if you talk too long.

Research before you call:  Look online for any professional information on the person you are calling, on their company, and trends in their market.  Making a relevant comment or providing some information of value establishes good rapport. And if you have any common ground-perhaps you worked for one of their clients – be sure to emphasize it.

Seek information, not luck:  Calling old and new contacts is an important way to identify opportunities, but also to expand your network and get people to think about you if anything comes up.  Don’t ask only if there are openings at the person’s organization.  Instead, set a wider net.  State the kind of work you’re looking for, and ask if they’ve heard of any opportunities in the field, or if they know of anyone you might contact.  

Script your message:  Write out how you will open the call and what you want to say, and rehearse it until it sounds natural. Remember, you have to communicate three things clearly:  The kind of work you do, the kind of work you are looking for, and what you are asking of the person you are calling. 

Have a cheat sheet by your side:  Keep your resume in front of you so that you can quickly refer to key experience and achievements.  Anticipate all kinds of questions and write out bullet point answers to have at the ready.   

Cold calling is always a numbers game. The more people you call, the higher the chance you have of reaching your objective.  It’s work. And like any work, set a schedule for yourself and stick to it.  Then give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Office holiday parties– are they an indulgence or a morale booster?  It’s a question I am asked frequently by clients.

At The Bagg Group, we know from years of interviewing A-level talent that candidates are seeking workplaces that not only provide professional opportunities, but also a congenial environment. And employees are far more likely to stick with a team, through thick and thin, that has fun together.

But this year, many companies are concerned that fun doesn’t fit into their budget. According to an October 2009 Reuters survey of 100 companies in the US, only 62% are planning to hold a holiday party, which is down from 77% last year.  Two years ago, as many as 90% of surveyed companies were partying the night away.

Certainly, times have changed, but it’s not best practice to take on the role of The Grinch this year. 

Many of The Bagg Group clients across the GTA have told our staffing solution experts that they are concerned it would appear uncaring to hold a seasonal blow-out in this era of wage freezes and cut-backs.  However, we know that now, more than ever, people need the opportunity to de-stress. 

And while it’s true that this is not the year for flashy extravagances, even small gestures at this time can go a long way to lifting spirits.

New research from Britain shows that human resource professionals there feel that despite the recession, the party must go on-albeit on the cheap.   Marketwire reports that at many British companies, employees are planning to bring their own bubbly to the office to make toasts. And rather than outsource catering and DJs, employees with talents are being recruited to provide food and entertainment.

A number of top employers in the GTA are doing likewise.  It doesn’t matter what you do, just consider doing something to mark the holidays, even if it’s simply a pot luck lunch. It’s a great occasion to mingle with all employees-and our recruiters know a friendly conversation, which is not about business for a change, can go a long way to reinforcing good feelings in the hallways. 

But remember, at an office party, friendly means neighborly, not intimate or indiscreet. The comedian Phyllis Diller once quipped, “What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.”  And as recruiters in the business for over 30 years, we’ve fielded calls from more than one candidate following a party blooper.

Whatever your holiday celebration proves to be, may it be a great reminder that the company of colleagues is worthy of a toast.

Cheers,

Geoff Bagg

The Bagg Group recruiters say the best thank you is a short one.

Following a job interview, should you send a thank-you note? That’s a question that the experts at The Bagg Group are asked often. 

The answer is easy.  No one has ever gone wrong by saying thank you. 

But recruiters at The Bagg Group know that  people who are seeking full-time work, a contract opportunity, or temporary employment often don’t send a follow-up letter for one reason-they just don’t know what to say.

The good news is that you should not say much.  

Here are some tips to help you put together an appropriate thank you that communicates professionalism and enthusiasm.  And that’s what hiring managers at the top companies in the GTA are looking for.

Keep it short:  Don’t use a thank you note to make a long plea for the job.  Instead of communicating enthusiasm, you’ll be communicating desperation. 

Remember, everyone in the workplace is overwhelmed by emails these days.  So your note should not take more than 15 seconds to read. Since your interviewer has already reviewed your materials and talked to you, it’s safe to assume that they don’t want to take the time to read a repeat of what they already know.

Say it in 3 points:  

• Thank your interviewer for having taken the time to meet with you about the position. 
• In one or two sentences, reiterate your interest in applying your skills and experience to meet the company’s needs.  
• Finally, mention that you would be happy to supply any additional information or answer more questions.

Keep personal comments to a minimum:

For example, you can wish the interviewer a good holiday, or best of luck with a product launch, if these subjects came up during your meeting. But don’t get carried away and assume you are now friends.  You have to stay strictly professional to make a good impression.  

Check for typos…10 times:

Write the note, read it and then don’t send it-not right away.  Instead, take a ten-minute break and read it again.  You will be able to spot typos and grammatical errors more easily when you read it with what proof-readers call “fresh eyes.”  Above all, make sure you have the correct spelling of the interviewer’s name.

For proof-reading tips, check out our April 15, 2009 blog:  Ask a Recruiter: Does one typo on my resume put me out of the race for a job opportunity?

Saying thanks to an interviewer is a small formality, but it’s one that is worth your effort.  Everyone appreciates receiving acknowledgement.  And as American writer Gertrude Stein put it, “Silent gratitude isn’t much to anyone.”

As many of you know, The Bagg Group has been conducting a survey of 200 private and public sector organizations in the GTA.

Latest findings show  better times ahead.  There are more employers in the GTA  that plan to add staff, rather than reduce their numbers, in 2010.  

In particular, 22% of organizations with less than 100 employees said they anticipate adding staff, while 20% of those who have between 100 and 500 employees and 15 % of organizations over 500 staff reported plans to hire.

For the 15% that said there may be a reduction, the majority were employers of 100  to 500 people. 

And when it comes to hiring staff, we learned that even in this age of do-it-yourself everything, the majority of organizations recognize the value of leaving recruitment  to the staffing solution experts.

While 28% of respondents said they may attempt the task on their own by using job boards, the others gave three reasons  for turning to a staffing agency:  They said the don’t have the time, their staff are too busy, and they don’t have the necessary expertise to do the best possible recruitment.

Unanimously, they noted that a staffing search is more time-consuming than ever before as more people are looking.  The Globe and Mail reported this summer that 54% of Americans are hoping to leave their current position for better jobs.  And in the GTA, we are seeing similar wave of restlessness among the employed.  

As I noted in a blog this spring  (In a recession, employers abide by two golden rules), quantity just means more resources are necessary to sort through the mountain of resumes to find appropriate fits. 

Typically, only three out of 100 responses are potentially suitable for your job opportunity. At The Bagg Group, we meet face-to-face with every prospective candidate. And on average, we recommend less than 30% of all those we interview to our clients.

Hiring authorities in companies across the GTA seeking to fill full-time positions or contract positions know that it will take an enormous amount of their time just to get an initial list together.  And nowadays, in most organizations, people are stretched thin as it is.

With that in mind, companies are more keen than ever to retain A-level talent. And the way to make that happen in this economy is to allow your best employees to focus on their areas of expertise. 

At the Bagg Group, our staffing solution experts hear every day from A-level people who want to find another job because they are de-motivated by having to spend much of their day handling  junior-level tasks that do not require their skill set.  

Our survey showed  the two most popular solutions of top employers in the GTA is to determine priorities for each task, and to hire temporary and contract workers to help balance the workload for those who are doing the job of two.

In these busy times when there just aren’t enough hours in a day, when you help your staff succeed, you help yourself.

The recruitment practices of The Bagg Group, top employers in the GTA and ivy league universities in North America are all motivated by the same belief:  You can’t ever afford to sit back on your laurels. 

No matter how great your reputation is as an organization, to get the best people on your team, you have to go out and find them.  

As President of The Bagg Group, I can vouch for the effectiveness of this approach.  And to new hiring authorities who are disbelieving, I offer the case of Harvard University.

For the class of 2010, Harvard received a near-record of 23,000 applications.  If you posted a position on a job board in the last year, you probably had about the same number of resumes flooding your inbox, proportionally speaking.

Yet despite the fact that Harvard is one of the most desired universities with top-ranking students around the world, it’s renowned for its hard-working recruitment department.  It has a 35-person admission team that claims to travel to more places, in more countries, than any other ivy-league university. 

What’s more, Harvard also has an army of 8,000 alumni who actively seek out the high-school students who show the greatest leadership potential in their hometowns.

The result is that each of Harvard’s 2,100 first year students– 9% of the total number of applicants– are stellar candidates for success.

A top-notch staffing and recruiting agency needs to work in a similar way. I believe staffing solution experts must be extremely knowledgeable about the hard and soft skills that are most valuable for businesses in today’s climate.  They have to have tremendous understanding of what it is they are looking for. And the best recruiters are well connected, with networks everywhere.

Harvard, like our clients – who are leading employers in the GTA and Ontario - recognize that it is people that ultimately make the difference between success and stagnation.  And that’s why recruitment is a proactive science. 

In my next blog, I’ll be giving you the results of a survey that we conducted with private and public organizations across the GTA.  I know you’ll find it interesting.

Geoff Bagg